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Direct link: May poetry (MP3)

In this episode of the Strange Horizons podcast, editor Ciro Faienza presents poetry from the May issues.

  • “Agadez Love Stories" by Annette Frost, read by Annette Frost. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Annette here.
  • “Gloves" by Lisa Rosinsky, read by Romie Stott. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Lisa here.
  • “Culture Shock from Wild Flowers" by Chengyu Liu, read by Ciro Faienza. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Chengyu here.
  • “Godmotherless" by Sara Backer, read by Sara Backer. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Sara here.



Annette Frost was born and resides in Boston, but houses a big part of her heart in Vermont. She has spent many years working in international development in West Africa, and loves the intersection of science and poetry. She believes in the importance of acknowledging both feelings and Climate Change.
Ciro Faienza (pronounced CHEE-roh) is an American/Italian national. He has acted on stages and screens throughout Texas and Massachusetts, and his work as a filmmaker has shown at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dallas Hub Theater, and the National Gallery, London. His fiction is featured in numerous publications, including Daily Science Fiction and Futuristica, Vol 1. His short story "J'ae's Solution" was a top finalist in PRI's 3-Minute Futures Contest. You can see his visual artwork at his web gallery, Postmedium.
Lisa writes poetry and young adult fiction. She has been an editor, a yoga teacher, and half of a two-person traveling production of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Her poetry appears in Prairie Schooner, Measure, Hunger Mountain, and other journals. She is pursuing her MFA at Boston University.
Liu Chengyu came from China nine years ago and is currently living in San Diego. He loves poetry and doing research on proteins. You are welcome to read his previous works in Strange Horizons, Aphelion, Grievous Angel, Silver Blade, and Abyss & Apex.
Romie Stott is the administrative editor and a poetry editor of Strange Horizons. Her poems have appeared in inkscrawl, Dreams & Nightmares, Polu Texni, On Spec, The Deadlands, and Liminality, but she is better known for her essays in The Toast and Atlas Obscura, and a microfiction project called postorbital. As a filmmaker, she has been a guest artist of the National Gallery (London), the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), and the Dallas Museum of Art. You can find her fairly complete bibliography here.
Sara Backer is the winner of the 2015 Turtle Island Poetry Award for her chapbook Bicycle Lotus published by Left Fork. Her speculative poems have appeared in A cappella Zoo, Asimov's Science Fiction, Dreams + Nightmares, Gargoyle, Illumen, The Pedestal, and many more. Her website is sarabacker.com.
Current Issue
16 Mar 2026

The garden is the resting place of your vulnerabilities; there’s a reason you’ve left them here instead of carrying them with you. Typically you enter hardened and hurried, beelining straight for the correct plot and quickly releasing whatever is clutched in your hand without a second thought—today, an attempted weaving of leather and lace, strength and suppleness that your body cannot figure out how to wear, nor your words to narrate.
If you say there are rats, I will believe you, though I don’t hear or see them.
A ruffling of branches as they resettle for the night. We dare not ask why they are here.
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